Vegetables are a common food on the dining table, but eating them every day doesn't mean you're eating them right. The top 5 myths about vegetables.
Myth 1: Meat is nutritious, vegetables are not.
Often, parents tell their children, "Eat more meat, it's nutritious and helps you grow." This unconsciously equates meat, eggs, and milk with "nutrition" and categorizes vegetables as "non-nutritious." In reality, vegetables are rich in vitamins, inorganic salts, dietary fiber, and many other beneficial elements for human health. If every meal contains more meat than vegetables, it not only leads to an untimely and ineffective replenishment of vitamins in the body, affecting growth and development, but may also cause other diseases. For example, insufficient intake of fiber from vegetables can easily lead to constipation and even induce colorectal cancer. Compared to people who don't eat vegetables and fruits daily, those who eat five or more servings have a 12% lower risk of stroke and heart attack. A U.S. study on vegetables and aging also showed that eating more vegetables can keep the brain young.
Myth 2: Always eating the same few vegetables at home.
There are far more varieties of vegetables than people imagine. In China alone, there are over 100 commonly eaten vegetables, but many people are afraid to buy novel ones, and over time, vendors end up selling only a few dozen types. Eating vegetables not only requires a daily intake of 300-500 grams per person, but also a variety of types, including leafy greens, eggplant and fruit varieties, tubers and potatoes, cabbage varieties, gourds, and root vegetables. This is because the nutritional components of each category differ. For instance, leafy vegetables like spinach, cabbage, and water spinach are rich in B vitamins, vitamin C, and various inorganic salts, making them highly nutritious. Carrots and peppers, on the other hand, are rich in vitamin C and carotene. Only by eating a wide variety can one achieve a balanced nutritional intake.
Myth 3: Vegetables are only tasty when stir-fried.
In a survey, nearly half of the people listed "stir-frying" as their preferred method for cooking vegetables. Ren Lili, a director and secretary-general of the Shenzhen Nutrition Society and a director of the Shenzhen Society of Food Science and Technology, pointed out that because many people don't like eating vegetables, they use incorrect cooking methods like adding more oil or stir-frying for a long time to change the texture. However, this causes vitamins and other nutrients in the vegetables to be lost too quickly. For most vegetables, blanching them and then serving them cold, or stir-frying them over high heat quickly, are good methods. Vegetables containing fat-soluble vitamins, like carrots and tomatoes, can be cooked with a bit more oil, but not too much.
Myth 4: Using fruits to replace vegetables.
"I didn't eat vegetables today, so eating more fruit is the same." Many people confuse vegetables and fruits, thinking they belong to the same category. But Ma Liping states that vegetables and fruits are two completely different foods and cannot be completely substituted. The content of vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber in most vegetables is higher than in fruits, while the pectin and fructose in fruits are also beneficial to the human body.
Myth 5: Worrying about food incompatibility and pesticide residues.
Many people often ask about vegetables, "Can cucumbers and tomatoes really be eaten together?" Many elderly people, influenced by rumors or unscientific claims, are afraid of "food incompatibility" and不敢 buy too many different vegetables to mix together. In reality, there is no such thing as completely incompatible foods. Some vegetables just need a little attention during cooking, for example, spinach, which contains oxalic acid, should be blanched in boiling water for one minute before being eaten with tofu, and then there's no problem. Additionally, some people worry about excessive pesticide residues on vegetables. Wang Xufeng said that the pesticides used on vegetables today are mostly highly effective, low-toxicity, and low-residue types. Most pesticides can be removed through steps like exposure to light and washing, so there's no need to worry too much.